14.3.11

Powerful earthquake struck northern Japan-An Appeal by SUJaS

As you are aware, the most powerful earthquake struck northern Japan at 2.46 pm local time on Friday 11th March 2011. We all watch the news with great worries - the scale of damage and loss is far beyond devastating… Many thanks to those who sent their thoughts for our members who have families and friends in Japan. Our hearts are with the people of Japan and the survivors from the earthquake and tsunami. We are anxious about ‘aftershocks’ following such a massive earthquake…

[Person finder]

I expect most of members were able to get in touch with their families and friends in Japan. For those who have difficulties in communicating with people in Japan, the following services may help to locate them:

The SUJaS is planning to run a fundraising appeal, ‘Donate to Japan!’, which will take place this week with the following schedule. Please do come along and make donations if you can. If you wish to donate by cheque, bank transfer or Paypal – please send an email to me (M.Morioka@soton.ac.uk).

We are currently consulting the SUSU RAG for this fundraising event. We will send you a confirmation email shortly.

[Thousand origami cranes, ‘Senbazuru’]

During the fundraising appeal week, we shall be making ‘Thousand origami cranes’ (Senbazuru) to express our wishes and thoughts to people in Japan who were affected by the earthquake. ‘Senbazuru’ is an ancient Japanese legend – it is believed that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person’s wish come true. It is probably not practical to send out origami cranes to Japan, so our intension is to express our thoughts by demonstrating our tradition of making origami cranes. Please join us if you want to find out how to make origami crane and express your wishes in Japanese way! Our plan is to give away origami cranes to those who donated.

[Volunteers wanted!]

This fundraising appeal will be run by volunteers of the SUJaS who are willing to spend time for supporting this event. We require more volunteers to make this fundraising successful. Please send an email to me (M.Morioka@soton.ac.uk) if you are willing to spend time during the schedule shown above (even 30 minutes of your time would help!).